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Will female majority rule PBC school board? Does it matter?

In November, voters will determine whether Palm Beach County’s seven-member School Board will continue with a female majority – voting in Erica Whitfield to replace Jennifer Prior Brown – or swing to a male majority – electing Tom Sutterfield to fill the District 4 seat.

Of course, the two candidates have all of this month to explain to voters what issues set them apart.

But, according to studies in a newly released book and described in an Education Week article, their gender alone could influence the discussions in board meetings:

School boards have more equitable representation of men and women than any other governing group in the United States, but new studies suggest women’s voices still often aren’t heard.

Women make up more than 40 percent of school board members nationally, more than double the average female participation in other governing groups in the United States. But unless they make up a supermajority of a board, women don’t comment and endorse motions as often as men do, according to studies in a newly released book, The Silent Sex: Gender, Deliberation, and Institutions.

The conclusions are drawn from culling through the minutes of meetings from 87 school boards in 20 states.

In those studies, women tended to participate less when they were in the minority—at about the same rates and ratios as women school board members did.

Yet because the researchers could control each group’s procedures and document all interactions, they also got hints of why women might have been more reticent: In groups with fewer women, and where decisions were made by majority rule, men were more likely to rudely interrupt or talk over women in their group. Moreover, the overall number of “positive interruptions”—for example, “I agree” or an expression of interest—went down when fewer women were in the group, and the number of negative interruptions, like talking over someone, changing the subject, or saying “no,” increased.

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When is the PB Post going to cover serious education issues again? Has anyone looked at how large the district staff is getting or the questionable decisions hiring top positions. Those at the top must be trusted, respected.